Californinicineration

Jon Stewart is back this week from a mini vacation and last time the Daily Show was gone for this long, a gay Senator bathroom sex scandal broke. This video further proves why I stay away from watching the Cable News shows. It is mostly tabloid driven, mindless dribble.

CNN's used the California fires to promote their global warming piece and Fox News cited a 4 year old FBI memo about one Al Qaeda member mentioning starting fires in the US to suggest that terrorists ignited this blaze. Stewart takes the Katrina Analogies to the woodshed.


Since no one cares except random anonymous commenters, and this is MY blog, I watch PBS's News Hour with Jim Lehrer(Add it to your TIVO) every evening for my main TV source of current events and news discussion. They actually will analyze a topic, policy or event, instead of just glossing over them like the Network nightly news shows do. Networks usually spend 5- 10 out their 30 minutes on some puff piece human interest story too.

Plus, the News Hour's guests are highly intelligent people with real work credentials, who actually discuss and debate the issues. Not these self glorified pundit contributors on cable news, who spend most of their time yelling the same broken talking points. When you are done watching the 24/7 cable news shows, you just want to yell at or blame someone. After viewing the News Hour, you can actual retain some knowledge from it.

For example on last week's show, the topic was foreclosures. They were exchanging ideas on how to assist homeowners with the sub prime crisis with a consumer advocate and a president of the mortgage lender association. You can click on the streaming video or scroll down for the text of their talk. The first part is about a Chicago bank program that helps out homeowners restructure their loans so they will not lose their homes. The next part is the sub prime discussion.

News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS

Mac Gs World

Cheney's Law

I watched one of the best documentaries that I have seen in awhile last night in the PBS Frontline special, "Cheney's Law." I did not really learn anything new but it did put whole the puzzle of this Administration's covert actions together quite nicely.

CIA secret interrogation facilities, spying on Americans without a court order, ignoring the Geneva Convention, warrantless wiretaps, holding detainees at Guantanamo Bay forever, the ridding of Habeas Corpus, narrowing the definition of torture, politicization of US attorneys and the gutting of the 4th amendment of unreasonable search and seizure. This video touches on the formations of all of these key topics.

My favorite is explaining signing statements by the president, where Congress passes a law and when the president signs it into law, he puts exceptions in there which basically means that he does not have to follow the law he just signed. I think the normal citizen still believes we live in a republic of checks and balances. The exorbitant use of these signing statements by Bush proves that we do not.

Regardless, if you hate Hilary or Rudy, love Ron Paul or Obama, you must watch this documentary. It is fascinating examination of how Cheney, with the help from his legal hit man/aide David Addington, have empowered the executive branch to unprecedented levels.

Here is the Intro

Click on Start Watching


Mac Gs World